Payton gets encouraging news on holdout

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Aug 1, 2009 - UPDATED: 4:30 p.m.

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METAIRIE — Just before Saturday morning’s training camp practice, Saints coach Sean Payton got some encouraging news about the holdout of rookie cornerback Malcolm Jenkins.

 Jenkins, the team’s first-round pick and 14th overall selection in the April draft, missed his third straight practice as he remains unsigned. But there could be some hope on the Saints’ part after the Houston Texans signed linebacker Brian Cushing early Saturday morning.

 That means the two players picked before and after Jenkins — Washington Redskins defensive end Brian Orakpo at No. 13 and Cushing at No. 15 — are in their respective camps.

 Since players usually get slotted according to where they’re picked, Jenkins should fall right between Orakpo’s five-year, $20 million deal and Cushing’s deal — the terms of which weren’t immediately known. But you know that Payton and Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis know.

 “Yeah, when you start seeing the guys in front and behind (signed), then you’re hopeful that the process speeds up,” Payton said. “What you don’t want to see is a couple of days, three days turn into a week, a week and a half. So now, you wait and you hope that we can get this thing resolved quicker.” 

• The afternoon practice, which was moved indoors when thunderstorms rolled through the area after lunch, featured several individual skirmishes before two fights broke out.

The first occurred when four defenders ganged up on wide receiver Paris Warren and continued wrestling with him after he was under control. Tackle Jermon Bushrod then jumped on cornerback Leigh Torrence to get him off Warren and the two exchanged punches in the middle of the scrum. 

A few yards away a second skirmish, instigated by defensive end Anthony Hargrove, broke out. 

• Payton said his team battled through a couple of upset stomachs in the first of two practices Saturday. Pro Bowl left tackle Jammal Brown, Payton said, had a “little bug.”

“I don’t know if it was (flu) or a little bit of the heat,” Payton said, “but he should be fine.” 

• Wide receiver Lance Moore, who is still rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery, got a few more repetitions in seven-on-seven drills Saturday morning.

Wide receiver Adrian Arrington worked with trainer Scottie Patton on the side again as he continues to come back from a hamstring injury suffered in the team’s June minicamp. 

“Lance’s lower body is fine, he’s doing real well,” Payton said. “Adrian needs to get his hamstring right before he gets back out here.”